Red Bull Racing has blocked out the front row of the Singapore Grand Prix grid in a dramatic qualifying session.
Sebastian Vettel, who could wrap up his second consecutive world title in the race, will start from pole, with Australian team-mate Mark Webber second.
Vettel led at the end of all three qualifying sessions, underlining his supreme 2011 form.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton looked like the man to offer The Bulls a challenge, but a fuelling problem during the final session forced him to sit on the sidelines. At that point, he was the fastest, but his time was edged out by Vettel, Webber and team-mate Jenson Button.
Hamilton’s up and down session also saw him involved in a out-lap dispute over track position with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
Massa would end up sixth, one place behind his team-mate Fernando Alonso.
Of the other top 10 runners, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the only other person to set a lap time, placing him in seventh. His team-mate Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher got out of pit lane too late, and the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta opted to conserve their tyres.
The only major incident was in Q2 Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi leaped over the Turn 10 kerbs and smacked into the outer wall.
Of note, Kobayashi’s Sauber team-mate Sergio Perez had knocked di Resta out of the top 10 in the dying moments of Q2, only for di Resta to pull out a mega final lap to take the spot back.
The Renaults had a horrid run, with Bruno Senna to line-up in 15th and Vitaly Petrov 18th – rolled out of qualifying at the end of Q1.
Grid order for Singapore Grand Prix.
No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps | |
1 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:46.397 | 1:44.931 | 1:44.381 | 12 |
2 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 1:47.332 | 1:45.651 | 1:44.732 | 14 |
3 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:46.956 | 1:45.472 | 1:44.804 | 14 |
4 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:47.014 | 1:46.829 | 1:44.809 | 12 |
5 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:47.054 | 1:45.779 | 1:44.874 | 13 |
6 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:47.945 | 1:45.955 | 1:45.800 | 14 |
7 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:47.688 | 1:46.405 | 1:46.013 | 11 |
8 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:48.819 | 1:46.043 | 11 | |
9 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:47.952 | 1:47.093 | 14 | |
10 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:48.022 | 1:47.486 | 14 | |
11 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:47.717 | 1:47.616 | 13 | |
12 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:48.061 | 1:48.082 | 14 | |
13 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1:49.710 | 1:48.270 | 16 | |
14 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 1:48.753 | 1:48.634 | 11 | |
15 | 9 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 1:48.861 | 1:48.662 | 13 | |
16 | 19 | Jaime Alguersuari | STR-Ferrari | 1:49.588 | 1:49.862 | 10 | |
17 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:48.054 | 8 | ||
18 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:49.835 | 8 | ||
19 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1:50.948 | 6 | ||
20 | 21 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1:51.012 | 6 | ||
21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:52.154 | 7 | ||
22 | 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:52.363 | 6 | ||
23 | 22 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 1:52.404 | 6 | ||
24 | 23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1:52.810 | 6 |
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